As You Wish
by laputatiana
Summary: MariChat May Day 1: Milk Day 2: Purring Day 3: Homework Day 4: Romeo... Romeo... Day 5: Baton Day 6: Game Night Also posted on my tumblr (fantau) and my AO3 (laputatiana)
1. Chapter 1

Chat Noir finally understands why Ladybug insists he doesn't patrol solo.

The threat of having no one to back him up in a fight never really registered with him. How could he have nobody? His lady would _always_ be there for him. She always is, she always seems to know when and where trouble is afoot.

So her warnings of ' _If one of us gets caught up in a situation and the other isn't able-'_ went in one ear and out the other.

Now, he finally understands her concern, unfortunately his understanding comes 40 minutes and 15 centimeters too late.

Of course he would finally understand in the middle of a blizzard.

The storm really hit Paris like a train, a couple of hours ago it had just started a light flurry, but soon Chat was miles from home, unable to see (or hear, really) or rooftop travel.

He's spends most of his exile outside attempting to assist stranded civilians home, luckily not too many caught the worst of the storm and now instead of cries for help he hears the gentle muffling flutter of snow.

Finally, the feline finds his school. And he perches on the front right corner, attempting to find his bearings and discern which direction his house would be in.

"Chat Noir!" someone shouts at him. First, he looks down for anyone who may have spotted him, and might need his help, but there's no one there, just a blanket of white. "Chat Noir!" next, it sounds like Ladybug, calling him towards some unknown destination. But he can't see her dazzling suit anywhere, so he has no idea how she would see him. "CHAT NOIR YOU DUMB CAT GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!"

Chat leaps on the ground and runs toward the voice of his lady. He scales a building, and climbs over a railing expecting to see red with black spots.

But it's not his lady, it's Marinette Dupain-Cheng, leaning heavily on her banister covered in every warm item known to man.

She looks at him, blinks slowly like she's just registering he's appeared and then an exhausted tiny smile tilts her lips.

She looks so breakable that he immediately steps forward like hie proximity would heal her.

She grabs one of his hands and presses something warm and metal into it. A thermos.

Any other time he would be overjoyed to look inside and see the goodies that await, but Marinette had never looked so vulnerable to him. A blanket is draped over her shoulders but it's covered in snow, she's visibly shivering and starting to turn a sickly grey, so he stifles his impatience and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Let's get you inside, Princess. Your lips are turning blue." he says, and the nickname 'Princess' comes so naturally to him that it shocks him. He works his jaw, imagining the name rolling off of his tongue. 'Purr-rin-cess'. He likes it, so decides to keep it.

"Yours too." Marinette whispers, and pokes his nose with the tip of her finger. She turns around and bends down to open the hatch of her balcony, and gingerly climbs down. Chat stomps his boots off and lands on her bed as well, watching as the girl gently falls back into the covers.

He squats down over her, watching as her eyes close slowly and she blinks up at him.

"Chat?" she asks gently. He leans closer.

"Yes, Princess?"

"Could you close the hatch?"

Chat nearly drops the thermos in his hurry to close the door, a blush lighting up his face because he was too busy gaping at her to even have the slightest common sense.

Once its closed Marinette buries herself even deeper into her covers and then lightly tosses the stray corner of a cover at him. He stays sitting up, legs crossed but throws the cover over them.

When he opens the thermos he's assaulted by smells, cinnamon, milk, vanilla. When he drinks it the concoction pours down his throat, and it has a sweet honey taste to it as well. It sinks down, sitting heavy in his stomach and warming him from the inside out. He hadn't noticed how cold he was.

"Marinette, how did you know I-" but when he looks over, his princess is already sleeping with a pink comforter tucked high around her neck.

He brushes her bangs out of her face, and smiles gently when her nose twitches.

He's slightly amazed that Marinette's kindness extends so far to superhero's stranded in a blizzard. Her warm heart somehow reaching through the snow to engulf him. He stands, he was hoping to stay longer but felt it was rude to watch her as she slept.

Marinette catches his hand, and squeezes his freezing fingers, surprising him.

"Stay… until it's… over." she whispers, and he sits back down.

"As you wish, Princess."


	2. 2 Reistance

This time.

This time for sure he isn't going to let it happen.

He trained for this, worked at home until he could silence the urge inside him and it all comes down to this last moment.

"You really won't purr for me?" Marinette pouts above him, looking down where his head lay in her lap. He shakes his head stubbornly, crossing his arms and turning away. "I didn't mean to make fun of you!" she insists. But Chat doesnt listen, and just shakes again.

Last time he had purred, she had mocked him. Ruthlessly. This time he wouldn't make the same mistake, he won't lose, no matter the cost.

"Well, I guess I can't make you." she says, but her fingers are already carding through his hair headed with single minded determination towards his ears. He turns over in her lap, face down, to hide his blush.

He won't do it.

She starts by gently pinching them, then circling her fingers along the velvety inside and the smooth outsides. He feels something build in his throat, but crushes it by digging the heel of his boot into his calf.

Her fingernails trace the outer edges of his real ears, before running to the back of his neck where they scratch to their hearts content. He scrunches up his face in concentration, fighting the weaker part of him that wondered why it would be so bad to give in to the sensation. Melt into her lap and purr and meow and- _no_.

He won't.

She hums, as though this is just a walk in the park for her. Her fingers move up the back of his head towards his ears again, taking their time, scratching and rubbing and -yes- petting every inch they go over. His body should not be able to betray him like this, in the way it arches his back and pushes his head into her hands. Stretches and shudders as he feels his claws push outward and retract back in and his muscles relax.

Its mutiny, he's sure.

He grunts to cover up what he's sure was an oncoming 'meow'. _Disgusting_.

He will not.

He's squirming in her lap by now and Marinette pulls her trump card., running her fingers back to his ears and scratching between and behind them.

His throat betrays him, he squeaks. He attempts coughing to cover it up, but it's too late, she heard. Her hands fly back to the wretched place that spurred the weak sound and they rub relentlessly.

He… can't…

She drags the back of her nails from his hairline down the back of his neck, between his shoulder blades to the spot right above his tail and his eyes nearly roll back into his head from the onslaught of pleasure.

Screw it.

The purr starts up, relentless as an old radiator, and hums through his whole body from the tips of his ears to the pads of his feet. It vibrates into her lap and she hears it. He feels her fingers sink a little more heavily into him.

" _There's_ _my kitty_." Marinette coos, but she doesn't stop, just keeps petting him gentle and firm in all the right places.

He pouts, but can't bring himself to tighten up despite how much he hates losing.

There's always next time


	3. Acceptance

"I'm not an idiot, Chat." Marinette growls out. She's hunched down on her desk, both hands buried between the ties in her hair and her scalp, yanking the ribbons away.

"I never said you were, princess." Chat's hands run over her shoulders up and down, squeezing occasionally.

"But you're treating me like one!" she says and huffs angrily, shaking his hands from her shoulders. It hardly deters him, he grabs a hold of her upper arms and gently presses his face into where she's scrunched up to hide her neck.

It's a nervous habit of hers, to tense up her muscles and hide her neck. When she's angry, when she's scared, stressed, sad, vulnerable… it took a while for Chat to find the sign, and now that he has he notices the look on her way too often.

He presses closer, hands still massaging and alternating between nuzzling her shoulder and the bit of her neck that's exposed. She sighs in exasperation but he feels her shoulders lower just a hair.

He learned recently that he is scent marking her when he has the urge to do this. She already knows, and doesn't seem to object, (Possibly because she sees him more as a giant cat than a boy) but Chat always finds himself a bit disappointed (and definitely exhilarated) when at school the next day his nose picks up traces off his own cologne and the smell of rain instead of the normal butter, sugar, and vanilla concentration that attaches itself to her skin.

"I'm sorry, princess, that wasn't my intent. I just wanted to help." Marinette turns her face towards him and his nose brushes the outer edge of her cheek just in front of her ear. He takes the content and leans his forehead against her, almost wishing his mask were gone so she could feel his skin on hers.

She smells like coffee and cinnamon today, usually smells that can irritate Chat's nose, but it soft enough to leave his senses intact. Her last cup of coffee was hours ago, when Marinette, Nino, himself, and Alya went into café. Of course he wasn't dressed head to toe in magical leather at the time, but he remembers scrunching his nose and questioning if walking in was really worth the deserts.

"Mari…" he calls near her ear and she rolls her eyes, tightening up on him again.

"I don't want your help, Chat. I can do it."

"But you've been at the desk for _hours._ " he rolled his hands on her shoulders in a way that made her twitch and relax and he takes the access to her neck before it closes up on him again. "And I want to do something more fun." he nuzzles into her pulse and she growls.

"Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Ah, ah, I never said anything incriminating, you just assumed. I'm ashamed of you, Princess."

Her shoulders loosen again and he opens his mouth to blow hot breath across her neck. She shudders and flinches away from him, exposing the homework she had been huddled over. He snatches the sheets out from under her hops away, waving them victoriously in his fist.

"Come on. I'm helping you." she accepts reluctantly. But resolutely protests when he suggests she sit in his lap.


	4. Chapter 4

Marinette paces the room, eyes locked on a densely filled packet of paper. In her other hand is a picture of Adrien Agreste.

She has never been a very good actor, and memorizing script isn't a popular pastime of hers, but the chance to play Juliet to Adrien's Romeo was too great a chance to pass up.

It's not anything heavy, no kissing scene. Just the balcony scene. If Marinette or Meylen doesn't pull through and nail the role of Juliette she would have to spend most of the class period watching Chloe lament about her love to Adrien.

It would make her sick, and be completely disheartening to hear Adrien reply with equally love struck fervor. Scripted or no.

It wasn't guaranteed that Adrien would get the part really, but it was most likely going to be him, and just about everyone knew it. He could act, he was a model, he acted every time he does a photoshoot. Plus, Chloe would likely try and do something to get him into the part if he somehow didn't make it.

"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"I'm not sure." Marinette jumps at the voice from her window, and turns around to face a very smug looking Chat Noir. "Can I take a message?" he saunters forward, head inclined with both hands behind his back. Looking all of the content cat he's supposed to be.

"You aren't my Romeo?" Marinette teases, punching the cat in the shoulder when he sidles up to her.

"Sorry Princess, I can't tell you that. Secret identity and all." he jokes.

"What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night, so stumblest on my counsel?" she stumbles around her lines as Chat examines her and grins wide at her effort.

"By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,  
Because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word." Chat's stopped grinning, and instead looks upset. Marinette's eyebrows scrunch up and she purses her lips. One hand lifts almost unconsciously and traces the edge of his mask with her thumb.

 _If only he knew._

"My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words of thy tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound. Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?"

"Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike." he leans into her hand and he presses his lips to her thumb. But Marinette can see his calm start crumbling. His eyebrows push together, his ears pressed flat to his hair.

"Kitty? What's wrong?" she asks. Some days Chat comes in all guts and glory but there are other quieter days where he slinks in and can't seem to use words, the days where he just wants to watch a movie and be close to her.

"I want to tell you so badly." he whimpers and pushes his cheek into her hand. "And I almost have but… _god_. You'd _hate_ me. A- and you-"

"Hey." she interrupts. "Anyone could be under that mask, I could never hate my kitty."

"What if it wasn't your kitty? What if i'm completely different? What if I'm quiet and shy and cowardly and what if you can barely face me?" he's holding her hand in his, keeping it pressed to his cheek. Pretty much begging her to keep him close. Keep him with her. ' _I want to stay.'_ it pleads. ' _Please don't leave me.'_

Marinette drops the script and the picture -school play and Adrien Agreste be damned- and steps over it to press her forehead to Chat's. She has to bring his head down a bit, causing him to hunch and her to press up on her toes but she hopes the effect is understood.

" _Never_." she insists.

"Never?" He's shaking, wrapping his spare arm around her hip, ignoring the tears rolling down his face. It's a heavy question, a loaded gun pointing at him or her or both of them. Her other hand holds his shoulder, rubbing her thumb in what she hopes are relaxing circles but with the fluttering of her heard they could very well be too frantic.

"Never."


	5. Chapter 5

It was just… sitting there.

Laying in the middle of the street untouched.

She had to grab it.

This akuma is dangerous, and she couldn't find a safe spot to transform. She could see her classmates hiding around various corners, too scared to move because of the akumas projectiles.

It was deadly, nightmare dust that you would be forced to inhale, people wouldn't be aware of what's going on around them. Just thrashing, some running, some writhing on the ground in agony.

She can't move, she can't transform.

But she can't leave her partner out there.

She can see Chat in the middle of the plaza, snarling and hissing at the akuma, fighting it hand to hand because the chance to grab his baton never presented itself through the giant's arms. The akuma is massive, a writhing mass of blackened flesh with too many arms and hollow spots where the eyes should be. Its smile is stretched too wide across its face. Truthfully the most horrifying looking akuma she's seen in all of her years.

' _What would Ladybug do?'_

Ladybug would trust her partner and attack from the backgrounds, thinking of a strategy.

Chat doesn't have time, every minute she can hear his Miraculous beep.

' _What would Chat do?'_

Chat would know she needs her weapon, run toward it with a one track mind and feet fast enough to dodge everything, anything to protect his partner and himself.

Chat can't do that right now.

But she, Marinette… she could… She could do something. She could be useful.

' _Be useful_ '

Marinette huffs, pulls off her shirt and shoves it in front of her mouth with one hand. She wraps her jacket around her and takes a deep breath through the cloth.

' _Go.'_ her brain urges. She does.

She hears Alya yell her name as Marinette leaves her safe haven, but she doesn't follow, for which the bluenette is thankful. One of her best friends is already out there.

Marinette runs towards the baton, lungs burning from the lack of air but she continues to ignore the explosions following her and instead keeps her gaze focused on the silver cylinder on the ground.

"Princess!" Chat Noir gives a strangled shout as she distracts him from dodging an oncoming hit, but she doesn't spare him a glance and slides between the legs of the giant nightmare monster. One of its appendages chase her, threatening to wrap its large fingers round her ankles. She jumps over it, slides across rough brick, heels digging in the cracks in between. She stumbles, toes catching and tips forward, her hand landing on the baton at the last moment.

She flips her body over and swats at a few balls of nightmare dust flying her way, closing her eyes against the sand like texture that burst from them.

"Princess!" Chats shouting, still desperately attempting to get past the monster and to her but every time he tries one of the akuma's many arms swipe him out of the air and send him flying in the opposite direction.

Tears streak down his face, and his miraculous beeps, Plagg likely trying to hold on as long as he can.

She swats the giant's legs with her partners lengthened weapon, dodges a stray arm and swats him with the baton again, watching in satisfaction as all the akuma's attention is turned to her.

Chat needs to recharge, and she needs him to recharge so she can transform. She runs between the monster's legs, jumping over large and grotesquely twisted fingers and gives a grin to Chat.

Running on adrenaline she looks up and yells

"Hey, Boogieman!"

The Akumas eye less face turns down from Chat towards her tiny form and she watches the Cat try and fail to get it back by yelling as loud as he can.

"Mari! Please! Dont-"

"Catch me if you can!" And with that, he chucks the baton at Chat Noir watching as he leaps to catch it instinctively and then falling back onto a roof, a green light flashing from the spot he disappeared.

" _MARINETTE!_ " Chat's voice breaks from where he hides.

Then, the girls tongue sticks out of her mouth and she dodges back as 8 arms come flying at her all at once.

The akuma has sent all of its arms through between its legs but doesn't seem to mind as its upper body follows and it twists itself around, going through its own legs and then the legs just flipping over to land heavily on the ground behind him.

The grin is still there, terrifying as ever.

The chase is on.

"Marinette!" Tikki shouts from her purse and she grabs it to stop the jolting motion as he feet desperately pound against the ground. "Go right!"

Marinette trusts her kwami explicitly and doges to the right, landing hard on her shoulder as nightmare dust explodes where she was seconds before.

"Thanks for the save, Tikki!" Marinette huffs, lungs aching so bad it's making her dizzy.

She's starting to struggle, barely getting out of the way in time, just jumping over the sweeping arms of the monster. So little air reaching her lungs it's making her eyes water.

She's tackled sideways out of the way just at she stumbles over a sewage covering and the air is knocked out of her lungs with a shoulder to the solar plexus.

Chat jumps to the nearest roof and instead of setting her down, falls and presses her shoulders to the roof. The shirt tied around her mouth loosens and hangs around her neck.

"Are you out of your mind?" he growls, tear streaks drying and shoulders trembling.

"What?" Mari tries to sit up but Chat keeps her down without the slightest effort. "It's fine, kitty I-"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

Actual tears are filling his eyes again but before Marinette can really do anything he tips forward and hugs her as best he can. His hands hold cautiously at her shoulders and she grits her teeth as he rubs his face against her neck.

"Chat, the akuma."

"What...what... would I... do?" he asks, his nose pushing against her pulse and then tracing her jaw. He's purring in his distress, his body trying to calm him down. It vibrates where his chest is pressed to hers, and shakes through her lungs, going all through her body.

"What?

"If I lost you." he whispers. "How could I live with myself? Knowing I should've done something." he pulls away from her neck a little, gives a sniff and seems satisfied with his work of… scenting her, maybe? Some Chat thing.

Chat Noir isn't often selfish, and he doesn't usually abandon his responsibilities. She lets him sniff her, purr, and press against her a little more, her face burning.

"Go, Chat." she urges after a minute, pressing his shoulders.

He leans back, gives her a look that's sadness and longing and relief and disappointment all at once, and then jumps away without a word.

She sits up slowly, somehow dizzier than when the shirt was over her mouth. Her face feels too warm and she pressed a hand to her cheek.

Yep, she's absolutely burning.

This is _bad_.


	6. Chapter 6

"I want to play a game." he says, leaning casually on his staff. Marinette keeps herself on the opposite side of the room, eyeing him with suspicion.

"I don't like your games." she answers, sounding quite unlike the strong Ladybug he knows she is.

"You used to." he answers. She flinches.

"That was before you became a puppet." she whispers.

Chat laughs, purple eyes gleaming and looking _so_ wrong.

"I'm no puppet. I've always existed inside of your partner." he seems to take only one step, but in the space of a blink he's right in front of her, leaning towards her ear. "His resentment for you created me."

He hears her gasp, and choke. It breaks off and a swallow works down her throat.

"I want to play a game." he repeats. "I remember you mentioning that Wednesday's used to be game nights… yes?" his hand trails up her arm, feeling her muscles tense.

"Yes." she breathes out. "Wha-W-Wh-What play…. Game. Game do you play?"

"Hmmm… how about 'Can you save your partner.' That sound fun?"

Marinette shakes, he watches her bite her lip out of the corner of his eye. Her lip is trembling, it's so cute that chat traces his thumb over it and revels in her whimper.

"You're sick." she whispers.

Chat steps back, grinning widely. He moves to sit down on her chase and watches in great satisfaction as she trembles and takes a shaky breath in. Her whole body is wired, on edge and her knees are shaking. She refuses to fall, knowing that's what he wants.

"What's your game?" she pants.

If possible, Chat Blanc grins wider and gently gets up to lead his princess to the couch. She sits, but puts as much space between him and her as possible. Not as if it would help.

"Say the thing that your partner wants to hear the most, and I might give him back."

Marinette can't hold back anymore and a stray tear leaves her eye. Chat resists the urge to lick it away, instead just watches it's progress as she trembles. She's muttering to herself, so low he can hardly hear it.

"Rules?" she finally asks.

"You get three chances, but if you say something wrong. You die. Because that means you never cared for him in the first place."

"God you're annoying." Marinette murmurs.

"Is that one of your three?" Chat mocks.

The girl rolls her eyes, then takes a deep breath.

"I miss us." is the first thing she says. Looking beaten down and tired. "I'm sick of fighting you. And I want you to come home."

"That should be three things, Princess." he replies, but he can feel a jolt inside of him that wants him to just quit. Pull her closer. This is his Lady, his Princess, she trusted him.

"Two. Hawkmoth can't give you what you want."

He swings his baton downwards, but she splits her legs and it hits the couch between them with a loud _THWACK_.

When he looks up she's glaring at him.

"Come on Princess, you're supposed to get rid of me." Chat says.

"I don't want to get rid of you." she says.

"Thats a lie." Chat thrusts his baton at her stomach but she dodges to the side and redirects his weapon by sliding the back of her hand along it. Then she surges forwards, and Chat ready to defend himself puts his arms up. But she just wraps around him. Sliding her arms around his stomach, her legs tangling with his, and she presses her face into his neck.

He actually shudders, and it trails from the end of his tail up his neck where he can feel his ears go hot.

"What are you _doing_!" he screeches, looking desperately for his baton to pry the girl from him. But ramming it into the arm of the chair bent it and pulled it from his hand.

He squeaks when Mari adjusts her grip tighter and _starts moving her face_ against his neck and shoulder.

"You're still my kitty." she whispers, her voice breathy and exerted.

"No I'm not, I'm under Hawkmoth now and you-"

He wasn't prepared for the hand that had snuck up and scratched its fingers between his ears. He shudders, eyes rolling back and tail twitching frantically. To his embarrassment a half moan half purr is pulled from his mouth, and he can feel Mari's smile against his shoulder.

"See, my kitten still loves being scratched."

To his embarrassment he still can't reply because as soon as he's about to her hand moves and scratches behind his left ear. He presses his lips tight together, hands on her waist fighting with themselves. Push or pull. His feet want to move but she's pinning them down with her own.

She finds his pulse with her nose, and then sniffs him. _Actually sniffs him_. Takes a deep breath in right there.

It's so unfair.

"Are you _scenting_ me?" he squeaks,

"My kitty. Mine. Hawkmoth can't have you. You're mine." she breaths out.

His traitorous heart thumps in his chest.

Oh god.

He feels her pucker her lips. Not enough to really count a kiss, just enough to let him know that she could.

She could do a lot of things to him right now.

He's been tense the entire time waiting for a surprise attack, but none come.

Her fingers are scratching against his ear just right before she moves her face and presses her lips to his jaw. Still not _really_ kissing him.

She moves her hand, fingers clenching in his hair. He readies for an attack as she forces his head towards her. Perhaps a knee to his stomach? Maybe a knife she's been hiding? Snatching his hand from where it rests on her hips to steal his ring?

All of those things seem more likely than what her actual pièce de résistance is a barely there kiss that she presses to his mouth.

Her lips are unfairly soft, traitorously inviting as she presses them hesitantly against his. She moves, sliding her lips against them and the dam of butterflies waiting in his stomach twists nearly painfully, then bursts. Sending warmth throughout his body, making him exhausted and shaky and warm.

When he pulls back to move, bump his nose against hers and get her to a better angle to hit a sudden itch she lets out a disappointed -well… he doesn't want to say _click_ , but more of a twitter or a vibrate that comes from her quite like a ladybug- click and chases his lips with hers, fingers tightening in his hair.

It breaks his heart and heals it, sends his stomach doing absolute backflips, sends his head recalling and forgetting and remembering what it's like to love her and every action she makes.

A purr like a motor, one she hasn't heard in months starts in his chest. It rumbles against her chest and against her lips. She smiles against him, he almost sighs. _God she's cute_.

She pulls back, and he tries to chase her again, _wanting wanting wanting_. But her hand in his hair keeps him from doing so. She smirks.

"My kitty will always have a part of him in you." she says. "I'm accepting you. I love all of you, Chat. And all of you is _mine_."

Oh god. So that's her game.


	7. Chapter 7

He really shouldn't be here. He knows that.

But what's the use of a school dance if he can't even dance with her. If he can't say 'Dance with me, princess.' and enjoy the night holding her in his arms. But he couldn't, not as Adrien. They weren't good enough friends to even make jokes about dancing together without the threat of awkwardness following.

Even when he flirted with her as Adrien she would tighten up, raising her shoulders and talk about getting air.

Which lead him here.

To the place he really shouldn't be.

Transformed into Chat, in a secluded corner of the school, in a space used for storage, holding her close and inches away from kissing her absolutely senseless.

He's curled around her, both arms around her shoulders with his head resting on hers.

"Why are you out here princess?"

The truth? She couldn't stop thinking about him, she couldn't stop thinking that he belonged next to her, dancing with her all dressed up in a suit and tie. Complementing her dress and keeping an arm around her waist to help her stay warm. She missed him, and she wanted him in there, she wants to know who he is and she wants him to know. She craves it so badly that the first reminder of Chat, a pickup line from Adrien, sent her stomach turning itself inside out painfully.

"I just needed some fresh air." she says instead. "The smell of perfume in there is so strong it's making my eyes water.

'Liar' his brain supplies

"I bet." he answers. He can still smell the perfume, despite being away from the center of the school, and the music reaches up to them as if trying to coax them back down.

Chat takes a step back from her, as painful as it is and holds out his hand to her.

She refuses to take it, and looks away instead.

"Please don't make me go back out there, I'll be dizzy."

'Please don't make me go out there and be without you for another two hours constantly dodging Alya's questions about why I'm not trying to dance with Adrien. Please don't leave me and let me stand alone on the sidelines as I watch people sway together keeping their hearts close together. Please don't make me act like I'm okay. Please don't leave me.'

Chat steps closer, and grabs a hold of Marinette's hand, prying it gently from where it is over her mouth, lest she say something close to her true feelings.

He pulls her towards him, and holds his waist with his other hand. He starts swaying to the faint music gently. Mari smiles at him, her eyes scrunch in at the corners.

As she looks at him her eyebrows push in, then her mouth turns down and her eyes brim with tears.

Chat brings a hand up to her face, kisses her cheeks when the tears fall and holds her waist fractionally tighter.

'I'm so sorry I can't be there for you. I'm sorry you have to go through this alone. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love you I promise.'

"Chat?" Marinette asks, voice just a whimper. It breaks his heart and he strokes her cheek. She leans into the touch. "Will you have this dance with me?"

He laughs, not because it's funny, but because she needs him to laugh right now.

"That's my line, princess." he leans down and presses a chaste kiss to her forehead. She hums.

"Will you though?"

"I'd be honored." he answers and she moves her hands to his shoulder, he moves his hands to her waist.

For a moment, they're just suspended. Hearts pressed together, floating and swaying gently to the music and every second Chat's joy grows.

She loves him she loves him she wants him near her.

He leans forward hunches over her a small purr starting up on his chest and his hands flexing and rolling on her hips. The material of her dress crinkles and he continues. Watching it wrinkle and straighten, gleam at this angle. He becomes so absorbed he barely notices when he falls out of rhythm and eventually gives up dancing altogether instead focusing on the shimmer of her dress and the feel of her hips under his hands.  
She leans into him, eyes looking up and him looking down.

"Chat." she says.

"Yes, princess?"

"What are you doing?"

"Pawing you." he says like it's the simplest thing in the world. He's long learned to accept his cat like tendencies around her. She pulled them out of him and he could do nothing against it except go with the flow

"It feels like an excuse to feel me up." she replies.

Chat leans down, captures her lips in a gentle kiss. He pulls away and she presses her forehead into his shoulder.

"Do I knead an excuse to feel you up?"


	8. Chapter 8

He giggles, and another glare is sent in his direction. She moves her attention back to the tulle and for her anger she handles it surprisingly gently. Well, as gently as she can when it just refuses to go under the sewing needle. He can't see her face, but hears a sound like a choke and breaks into laughter again.

"Chat Noir I will kick you out of this house!" She growls, throwing the tulle skirt away from her in rage. Seeming to be unsatisfied when it floats gently down instead of dropping like a brick and then setting itself on fire.

Marinette sighs, and drops her head heavily on her desk, and Chat's sure if he wasn't here she would be on the verge of tears. He hops off of her kitchen counter and stalks over to her desk, then effortly picks her up from her spot and carries her over to the couch where he plops them both down.

She fights him without actually fighting him, reaching for her abandoned project and kicking her legs.

"Chat I need to work." she whines, sinking back into his chest.

"You haven't gotten anything done in three hours." he replies, pressing his face into her soft hair and smiling.

"That's why i need to work."

He wraps his arms tighter around her and shakes his head.

"Sorry princess but you're not moving from this spot."

With a internship at his father's company and commissions and still just barely managing to pay for her own apartment both Adrien and Chat have been well exposed to how full Marinettes life is, how tired it's making her. Alya had been trying to talk her into dropping the internship for months now, insisting that Gabriel Agreste's regimen is just too strict but Marinette wasn't having it.

The worst part is, his father likes her. He likes her work and he wants to see her go far.

Which means Marinette is tearing herself up from the inside out trying to live up to his expectations.

Chats been there before. Marinette doesn't deserve that. So that's why he is trying his best to make her rest.

As Adrien he breaks into her apartment (via a key Alya was _far_ too happy to give him) when she's been missing for three days, and makes her food while he forces her to take her first shower in… _a while_. Then he'll hide her projects until she takes a nap (passes out so deeply he could crash a plane into her window and she still might not wake up) and cleans the mess of randomly strewn clothes, take out, and energy drinks.

The he passes out on her couch until she wakes him up looking visibly healthier than she had before and so guilty that Adrien can't help but laugh at the nervous way she bites her lip when she realizes he's in her apartment again.

Chat's seen his father slowly lock himself away for fashion, push away everyone who was close to him and manipulate the ones that stayed around. While he highly doubted that Marinette could ever do such a thing, it hurt just to think of the possibility. She loves fashion, it makes her happy and she finds inspiration everywhere. His father used to be like that, now his love was twisted into something that hardly counted at all and he would eat his boot before he stood idly by and left Marinette with no one.

This evening when he dropped through her window to check on her again she was so wired she had barely managed to raise a shaky hand in his direction. So he's decided to intervene in the best way he knew how.

Hostage cuddling.

Usually it's not that hard, he just has to hold her until she finally falls asleep but today something is keeping her awake. The whole of her is buzzing with a nervous energy so antsy it's making him want to go for a run just to get rid of the feeling.

So he wraps his arms around her tighter, tangles his long legs with hers, and pressed his lips against her hairline.

As soon as he starts purring she stops fighting him and he feels the fluttery energy disappear with every rumble.

"You need to sleep, princess."

"I can't." she whines, fighting a losing battle when she clearly _doesn't_ try to get away from him. "I gotta work, fashion over fu-function." her statement is ended in a yawn.

He keeps purring until he feels her breathing even out, and then purrs some more as he starts feeling heavy lidded as well. Then he purrs until he falls asleep, and purrs even in the dead of night as he holds her.


	9. Chapter 9

Chat can admit that he has a problem. Ladybug had recently taken up a habit of flicking his bell whenever she was pleased with him. A 'good job' gesture that didn't take much time. It wouldn't be a problem if she hadn't started doing it _all the time_. When he did a good job, when she was bored on patrol, on the nights she lay her head on his lap and look up at him with those gentle eyes that killed him.

Each ring of his bell started bringing dopamine flooding his brain and his tail would start twitching in anticipation of the physical reward that followed.

A hug, a pet, and one late, treasured night, when his lady was clearly sleep deprived, a kiss on his cheek.

So

Of course.

One night Marinette had flicked his bell and immediately noticed the blush that came as a result of her finger lightly flicking his bell.

Of course she had managed to pull from him the reason that he seemed he wanted to pounce her and then laughed at him.

Then exploited it relentlessly.

The next time he came over to her house he doesn't know what he was expecting except a matching bell collar to be around her own neck. All he knows is that it is absolutely _unfair_.

She doesn't say anything about it, but he can see her playful smile when his gaze slides from her face down to the collar and locks on the shiny bell that hangs in the hollow of her collar bone.

Its mocking him. She's mocking him. Playing games with his head and his heart at the same time.

"Princess." He greets, every hair of him standing on edge, every muscle tense, every beat of his heart carefully monitored

"Yes, Chat?" She leans forward and Chat stiffens in anticipation of a ring of the bell but none comes. The bell remains mercifully silent, and her smirk only widens, watching him as he frowns and forces himself to relax.

"What is that?"

"It's a bell." she answers. "I thought you might like it. Reminds me of you."

Oh he _does_.

But he also hates it.

Very quickly he finds out two things about his princess, One, she's awfully alluring when she doesn't mean to be. Two, she's a tease and he should start expecting this.

He steps down from her bed, and she turns back to the project on her desk, something he can't be bothered to pay attention to. Especially when he notices that she's tied her hair in a bun specifically so he could see the clasp. It's just two buttons, but her message to him is clear

' _You could take it off.'_

But that would be losing.

Which he refused to do. He wouldn't let her know that her teasing was working, that even now he was wondering if the pitch of her bell would be the same as his, wondering what might happen when it finally rings out. Wondering how she'll feel, wondering how he'll react.

So Chat settles down, watching her carefully, bristling every time her hand goes near her neck, sighing when she pulled it away.

Finally, after finishing with the obviously staged something -probably created specifically to rile him up- Marinette turns in her chair and looks at a fairly antsy Chat Noir.

"What's wrong?"

' _You know damn well what's wrong I'm conditioned to act like a lovestruck idiot whenever that thing goes off.'_

"Nothing, princess, Merely distracted by your radiance." he says, his voice totally not cracking on the word _radiance_ when her hand goes upwards and traces one thin finger along the golden curve.

"My radiance, huh? Nothing else?" she asks. His eyes go from her teasing finger to her teasing mouth and back again. Watching how her tongue moves when she says nothing and then to her finger as it pokes the still silent bell lightly. Back to her lips where she licks him and back down to her fingers as they just barely push behind the leather of her collar.

What god decided this is the bad luck he deserves?

Probably Plagg.

"Mmhm." he answers, still staring at the collar until he felt it should've burst into flame.

Marinette seems to smirk and stands up.

That does it.

It rings.

Chat's entire body goes from tense to languid in the space of three seconds and soon enough he's laying on Marinette's lounge, fully taking over the space. Now that the bell has rung everything's going to be fine, and he has no reason to stress.

Or, thats whats supposed to happen.

Marinette still hasn't come over and pet him, telling him that -yes- everything is okay now. His whole body starts buzzing with anxiety the longer it takes for her to walk over. When he looks up she's walking around the room pointedly not looking at him. He has to get her attention.

"Purrrincess?"

"Yes, Chat?"

"Are you okay?" because she's not petting him. He's probably done something wrong.

"Yes, Chat." she answers and continues walking around the room doing god knows what. She's ignoring him. That much is apparent, and she's not smiling, just moving items through her room. He's done something wrong. He can feel it.

"Princess?" he asks again, voice cracking as his head fills with negative thoughts and his eyes fill with tears.

"Yes, Chat?" She glances over and then immediately drops the yarn she's holding and rushes to him, pushing her fingers into his hair. "What's wrong?" He pushes his head more into her hand and sniffles. He know's he's being too sensitive but…

"I thought you didn't want me." he whispers and Mari yanks off the bell and glares at it as if it's done something wrong.

"No that's not true at all, Chat. You're my kitty, and I'll always want you."

Chat gently takes the collar from her hands and snaps it back onto her neck. Adjusting it so it rested to where it was before.

With one claw, he taps the outside and then lifts it upwards and lets it swing back into place with a ring.

Although his body reacts in much the same way as usual, relaxing and feeling everything is alright he's much more interested in Marinettes reaction. Rocking back on her heels and slapping her hand over the bell even though her pupils dilate at the same time. A slight blush is covering her cheeks and she looks away from him.

It's not the full blown red he's used to, but he could get there.

He smirks, revenge will be sweet.


End file.
